What Could Be Going On At Ferrellgas?

Ferrellgas, the propane company that has consistently made it on Ingram’s Top 25 Public Companies list, has been experiencing a few bumps in the road. Recently, shares sank 22 percent, and the company revealed an indefinite suspension of shareholder distributions. Additionally, Doran Schwartz, CFO, and Trent Hampton, COO, left the company. In the interim, Bill Ruisinger, who was the vice president of treasury, will serve as the CFO, while Bryan Wright, senior vice president of operations, will serve as COO.

Ingram’s caught up with Benjamin Brownlow, Ferrellgas analyst at Raymond James out of Atlanta, to get his thoughts on what could be going on at the company.

“The elimination of the distribution wasn’t too surprising given restriction on distributions related to the partnership’s consolidated fixed charge coverage ratio,” Brownlow said. “However, I suspect a large portion of the current investor base was expecting, or at least hoping, a successful refi would sustain the current distribution, which we were not expecting or modeling in the near future.”  

Brownlow declined to speculate on the future outlook of Ferrellgas.